Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner uncovers the hidden side of everything. Why is it safer to fly in an airplane than drive a car? How do we decide whom to marry? Why is the media so full of bad news? Also: things you never knew you wanted to know about wolves, bananas, pollution, search engines, and the quirks of human behavior.

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Freakonomics Radio

For decades, teams have tried (and mostly failed) to predict which college quarterbacks will thrive in the pros. Is the science finally catching up? Stephen Dubner speaks with a scout, a psychologist, a data warrior, and a Hall of Fame quarterback who nobody wanted.  
 

SOURCES:
Scott Goldman, sports psychologist, owner of the Athletic Intelligence Quotient.
Dan Hatman, director of scouting development at the Scouting Academy.
Stephen Smith, founder and C.E.O. of Kitman Labs.
Kurt Warner, Hall-of-Fame quarterback, N.F.L. Network analyst.


 

RESOURCES:
"Head in the game: the impact of cognitive abilities on performance of National Football League quarterbacks," by R. Thomas Boone, Nicholas Zambrotta, Andrew Manocchio, and James Bowman (Frontiers in Psychology, 2025).
"The Quarterback Prediction Problem: Forecasting the Performance of College Quarterbacks Selected in the NFL Draft," by Julian Wolfson, Vittorio Addona, Robert Schmicker (Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, 2011).


 

EXTRAS:
"The Merger You Never Knew You Wanted," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
"The Rooney Rule," series by Freakonomics Radio (2024).


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686. Why Is It So Hard to Find an NFL Quarterback?

He started with one small shop in London. He has since resuscitated both Barnes & Noble and Waterstones. He tells Stephen Dubner exactly how he does it.
 
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Amazon Was Supposed to Kill the Bookstore. James Daunt Had Other Plans | Better in Person

Gina Raimondo, a former commerce secretary and governor, thinks A.I. will create plenty of jobs in the long run. She also thinks a poorly managed transition could tear the country apart. So she came up with a plan.
 

 SOURCES:
Gina Raimondo, co-chair and C.E.O. of RAISE US.


 

RESOURCES:
"What Makes New Work Different from More Work?," by David Autor, Caroline Chin, Anna Salomons, and Bryan Seegmiller (NBER, 2026).
"$500 million AI jobs push launches with bipartisan backing," by Christine Mui (POLITICO, 2026).
"Gina Raimondo and Eric Holcomb Launch RAISE US, Uniting the Nation’s Leading Employers and Bipartisan Governors Behind American Workers," (RAISE US, 2026).
"Young Graduates Face the Grimmest Job Market in Years," (New York Times, 2026).
"Why AI Giants Are Investing $500 Million To Retrain American Workforce," by Jon Markman (Forbes, 2026).
"Wicker Praises Research, STEM Education Provisions in New CHIPS Act," (U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 2022).


 

EXTRAS:
"Can A.I. Save Your Life?," by Freakonomics Radio (2026).
"Will the Democrats 'Make America Great Again'?," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
"How Do You Reopen a Country?," by Freakonomics Radio (2020).
"How to Be a Modern Democrat — and Win," by Freakonomics Radio (2018).


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685. How to Survive the A.I. Shock

Anne Pasternak (Brooklyn Museum) and Michael Roth (Wesleyan University) tell Stephen Dubner how they keep the peace in the middle of a culture war.
 
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How to Run an Institution in an Anti-Institution Era | Better in Person

Museums are purging their collections of looted treasures. Can they also get something in return? And what does it mean to be a museum in the 21st century? (Part 3 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)
SOURCES:
  
Patricia Allan, museum consultant, former curator of world cultures for the Glasgow Museums.
Andrea Bayer, deputy director for collections and administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.
Patty Gerstenblith, professor emeritus of law at DePaul University College of Law.
Tom Wilkening, professor of economics at the University of Melbourne.


 
RESOURCES:
  
"After Seizures, the Met Sets a Plan to Scour Collections for Looted Art," by Robin Pogrebin and Graham Bowley (The New York Times, 2023).
"Nigeria Benin Bronzes: Buhari Declaration 'Blindsides' Museum Officials," by Barnaby Phillips (B.B.C., 2023).
"Shared Stewardship and Ethical Returns Policy," by the Smithsonian Ethical Returns Working Group (2022).
"Protecting Antiquities: A Role for Long-Term Leases?" by Michael Kremer and Tom Wilkening (Working Paper, 2015).


 
EXTRAS:
  
“Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard,” series by Freakonomics Radio (2023).


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How to Return Stolen Art (Update)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan talks about confidence, luck, and why it takes 35 drafts to get to the finish line.
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“I Trust Almost Anyone More Than Myself” | Better in Person

The world’s great museums are full of art and artifacts that were plundered during an era when plunder was the norm. Now there’s a push to return these works to their rightful owners. Sounds simple, right? It's not. (Part 2 of an updated series originally published in 2023.)
SOURCES:
  
Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.
Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum.
Victor Ehikhamenor, Nigerian writer and artist.
David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic.
Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford and curator of world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Bénédicte Savoy, professor of art history at the Technical University in Berlin.


 
RESOURCES:
  
"These Looted Treasures Are Home. What Now?," by Alex Marshall (New York Times, 2025).
"France's Long-Awaited Restitution Policy Is Finally Here," by Vincent Noce (The Art Newspaper, 2023).
Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat, by Bénédicte Savoy (2022).
"Who Benefits When Western Museums Return Looted Art?" by David Frum (The Atlantic, 2022).
"Museums in England and Wales to Gain Powers to Dispose of Objects on Moral Grounds," by Dalya Alberge (The Guardian, 2022).
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, by Dan Hicks (2020).
"The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics," by Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr (2018).


 
EXTRAS:
  
"Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?," by Freakonomics Radio (2025).
"The Hidden Side of the Art Market," by Freakonomics Radio (2021).


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Is a Museum Just a Trophy Case? (Update)

When he joined the Del Fuegos, his big brother’s band, all Warren knew how to play was a record player. Things went great for a while — and then it all fell apart. So how did he wind up writing definitive books on Springsteen and Tom Petty? 
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Meet Warren Zanes, the Author and Rocker Behind the Springsteen Movie | Better in Person

How did a freshly looted Egyptian antiquity end up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art? Why did it take Kim Kardashian to crack the case? And how much of what you see in any museum is stolen? (Part 1 of “Stealing Art Is Easy. Giving It Back Is Hard,” first published in 2023.)
SOURCES:
  
Andrea Bayer, deputy director of collections and administration at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Matthew Bogdanos, assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit.
Patty Gerstenblith, professor emeritus of law at DePaul University College of Law.
Jim Marrone, staff data scientist at StubHub.
Victoria Reed, Bettina Burr chair for provenance at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.


 
RESOURCES:
  
"Is the Metropolitan Museum of Art Displaying Objects That Belong to Native American Tribes?" by Kathleen Sharp (ProPublica, 2023).
"More Than 1,000 Artifacts in Metropolitan Museum of Art Catalog Linked to Alleged Looting and Trafficking Figures," by Spencer Woodman, Malia Politzer, Delphine Reuter, and Namrata Sharma (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, 2023).
"The Art Market 2022: An Art Basel & UBS Report," by Clare McAndrew (2022).
"The Tomb Raiders of the Upper East Side," by Ariel Sabar (The Atlantic, 2021).
"Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala Photo Helped Solve Looted Gold Egyptian Coffin Case," by Samantha Ibrahim (New York Post, 2021).
"Tracking and Disrupting the Illicit Antiquities Trade With Open-Source Data," by Matthew Sargent, James V. Marrone, Alexandra Evans, Bilyana Lilly, Erik Nemeth, and Stephen Dalzell (RAND Corporation, 2020).
"Provenience and Provenance Intersecting with International Law in the Market for Antiquities," by Patty G. Gerstenblith (North Carolina Journal of International Law, 2020).


 
EXTRAS:
  
"The Hidden Side of the Art Market," series by Freakonomics Radio (2021).


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The Case of the $4 Million Gold Coffin (Update)

Angela Buchdahl was the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi, and now she is among the most influential rabbis in the world. She and Stephen Dubner talk about boundary-crossing, the aftermath of October 7, and whether you can be a good Jew without believing in God. 
 
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